The occasional omissions and misconstructions would be the result of what Stengel has described as Mandela's mask. His 'ghost-writer,' Richard Stengel of Time magazine, spent many months with his subject, and has done a fine job. No one, certainly not a man in his mid-70s negotiating day and night for the freedom of his people, would have had the time to put a book together.

When in prison, Mandela wrote down a lengthy account of his life, He had time on his hands and the past came back 'like a waking dream.' The manuscript was smuggled out, and forms the spine of this story. I find with the autobiography of the famous that the first two-thirds - Formative Years and The Struggle - are often more absorbing than the last, Time of Fame. Indeed, the book might be seen as a love letter to Winnie.īut first, a word of caution. Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom has humor and pathos, arrogance and humility, the occasional personal revelation, moments of terrible sadness and, running as a leitmotif through the narrative, the forgiving love for his errant wife. But now, from the top and the inside, comes a meaty yet graceful volume by the black man who incarnated the struggle. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE STRUGGLE AGAINST APARTHEID WAS MOSTLY PROVIDED BY LIBERAL AND FREEDOM-FIGHTING WHITES, THROUGH BIOGRAPHY, ACADEMIC STUDIES, AND THE MEDIA.Īs one of those responsible, far be it from me to complain.

A long walk to freedom